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I have always had a hankering to visit New York in the depths of winter, to see what is meant by the signs saying Snow Lane, to see Central Park in the snow, to see how the city is changed. London has its own microclimate which is rarely extreme, Paris and Berlin can be much, much colder, but storys of 3 metres of snow in New York tickled my curiosity. As my Airbus tip toed across the icy tarmac at Kennedy, and a fellow passenger regaled me with tales of sitting for twelve hours at Boston airport waiting to get in to New York in winter, I wondered if curiosity was triumphing over wisdom.
Looking down on the inlets and small harbors on approach I had seen frozen seas, boats locked in ice and the frosted landscapes of a fairy tale. Would city life in New York be like that of my native London, where weather rarely seems to do anything other than upset the cricket season at test match time? Fortunately road signage is good and the New York grid system makes driving in the city a whole lot easier than London, Paris or Berlin.
The site of mechanical shovels removing snow, of piles of ice and slush heaped in the inside lane explained the Snow Lanes. The hotel doesn't have its own car park it does have an arrangement with a massive underground car park around the corner giving guests easily accessible secure ice free parking.
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As soon as you entered the Wingate you were back in a controlled environment with little evidence of the sub zero temperatures and snow outside
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"...as the ice storm had frozen many cars to the road, their owners unable to move them from the predations of traffic wardens who delighted in ticketing and reticketing stranded vehicles..."
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Wingate’s new Manhattan property was easy to find, and came with secure parking in the next street. Parking that week was a lottery as the ice storm had frozen many cars to the road, their owners unable to move them from the predations of traffic wardens who delighted in ticketing and reticketing stranded vehicles until the mayor in the face of rising public rebellion rescinded the tickets and relaxed the restrictions in anticipation of a forthcoming thaw – to the delight of New Yorkers who immediately abandoned the public transport system to enjoy random free parking downtown for the duration!
For any hotel, operating in an environment where there is snow piled against windows causes problems. In a city it is a different set of problems to those in the countryside. In many cases a country hotel would be a resort in winter, geared up for skiing and prepared to deal with the problems that snow brings. In the city people want to continue with their lives in the normal way, and the snow quickly become contaminated with salt, muck from vehicles and all the dirt of city traffic.
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Heavy mats protect the marble from the slush off the street. Photographed from in front of the reception desk the lobby uses height where there is no width, with a seating/meeting area at first floor level
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Wingate Inn
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